John Boehner Resigns as House Speaker

John Boehner the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is leaving Congress at the end of October following a struggle with continual rebellions from conservatives during his tumultuous reign of five years as the top Republican of the chamber.

The Ohio lawmaker who is 65 stunned members of the Republican House on Friday during a morning meeting with his announcement that he was leaving the top job in the chamber of 435 seats and resigned his seat effective October 30.

Kevin McCarthy the No. 2 Republican in the House who is from California quickly became the top contender to replace the current speaker.

While loyal to Boehner, the California congressman has his own personal relationships with groups that are conservative and tacked more right recently to support a shutdown of the Export-Import Bank.

Boehner said to reporters that McCarthy would be an excellent House Speaker.

Boehner has come under constant pressure from House conservatives who believe he was almost always too willing to make compromises with President Obama and would too frequently rely on votes by Democrats to pass crucial pieces of legislation.

Obama gave praise to the speaker and hoped that Boehner would be able to accomplish a lot prior to his last day in October.

Boehner told the press on Friday he was stepping down so he could avoid one more brewing battle in the House over his current leadership.

Conservatives threatened to revolt and to possibly shutdown the government next week over spending.

It has become much more clear this leadership turmoil could do irreparable harm to this institution said Boehner. He had to fight back his own tears as he thanked family, but quickly recovered to show he was far from a broken leader over his decision.

His decision eased a threat to shutdown the federal government next week, said Republicans freeing him to move ahead with a clean bill that funds Planned Parenthood the healthcare group for women without any fear of reprisal from the conservatives who objected to the abortion services of the group.

However, the battle over the successor to Boehner might coincide with fights later in 2015 over spending by the government and raising the debt limit of the government complicating the battle and adding more uncertainty to the financial markets.